Americans are slightly more likely now (57%) than in December of last year (51%) to support allowing refugees from Central America into the U.S…

Debate about the handling of refugees — as well as who qualifies as a refugee — comes as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports sharp spikes in the numbers of migrants coming to the U.S. border. The number of migrants coming to the border is much higher than was the case when Gallup last polled this question in December. Detention facilities have become overcrowded, sparking criticisms of the administration’s handling of the situation.

Support for allowing Central American refugees entry is now higher than Gallup has found for most refugee cases it has polled on historically, including Syrian refugees in 2015 as well as stretching back to refugees from the German Holocaust in the 1930s and 40s. The only refugees that garnered higher support in Gallup trends were ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo during a period of ethnic cleansing there in 1999. At that time, 66% approved of the decision already made to bring “several hundred ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo” to the U.S.